Equinox
by Winchester-Werewolf
Summary: After the beginning events of New Moon, with Bella trapped deeply in her depression, Charlie and Renée decide it might be good for Bella to have a familiar face in Forks. But when Bella's sister Emily arrives, she brings her own stock of problems; including a curse, and a bite mark to boot. OC X Jacob Black, canon relationships. Teen Wolf fusion.
1. Chapter 1

When Renée put me on the plane I hadn't really known what to think. Mom had made it out like it was going to be a great big adventure with my sister, to stay in Forks for a whole year. As a way to 'cheer' her up, and as mom said, to give myself a little bit of 'independence'. Even though I was halfway through the first semester of freshman year of highschool, and we had barely just settled in Jacksonville, Renée was determined for me to go. The only thing I knew my sister was that my sister had gone through a rough break up, and she'd gotten herself lost in the woods at some point. But that had been several months before the trip, so I assumed the worse to be over.

But I was not prepared for what awaited me in Forks.

Charlie looked awful when he picked me up at the gas station-sized airport in Port Angeles. There were heavy black rings beneath his eyes, more gray in his hair than the last time I had seen him, and had a couple more pounds around his middle. Despite the lateness of the afternoon, he was in his police uniform and held a Styrofoam cup of coffee in his hand.

"It's good to see you, Emily." His hugs were the same. He still smelt of rain, gun oil, and Old Spice. It was awkward around Charlie, I didn't know him as much as Bella did. I had been a byproduct mistake of a mistake, and the awkwardness of it permeated everything. But by this point I had accepted is as part of our relationship.

We listened to local radio during the hour and a half drive to Forks. Charlie opened his mouth a couple of times as if to say something, but couldn't seem to get anything out. I equally couldn't find any words when I tried to ask what was up.

I hadn't been to Forks since I was ten. Bella had refused to go to Forks that summer, and I had followed my sister, so Charlie had had to come to Arizona instead. Even though it had been four years, Forks hadn't changed all that much.

The forest was still luridly green, the sky dark and stormy. Bella had always hated it. Said it made her feel trapped and caged beneath the constant clouds.. She had seemed so much freer in Phoenix beneath the ever-present sun. Every summer throughout childhood she had acted like it was some kind of prison sentence.

Which was why it was such a mystery she had remained here after we'd settled down in Jacksonville. Before she left, I'd helped her find a baby cactus to bring a little dessert to rainy Washington State. It had baffled me that she'd wanted to stay in a place she hated so much.

I liked Forks. I liked the big trees, and I liked the rain. I like the cool, calm, quaintness of a small town that was so different to the bustling city Phoenix had been. When I was younger Charlie had bought me a new pair of rubber rain boots every year because of my passion for puddle jumping. Driving through Forks made me nostalgic. I wondered if my old rain boots would still fit, and whether or not the dip at the end of Charlie's road was still there and full of water.

There were a couple new houses, and a shiney new gas station along South Forks Avenue. But besides that it was exactly the same. One house still had a rusted and unused car on their lawn. Turning onto Charlie's street felt exactly like it did when I was nine years old and nervous about being away from Renée so long. A battered and very ancient red truck was parked in the driveway of Charlie's house. I had never seen it in person before, but I remembered it from one of Bella's birthday present photos. It made me jealous that I wasn't of permit age and couldn't drive yet. The freedom of having my own car was just out of my reach.

"Bella should be home," Charlie said with a tired smile as he pulled up into the drive.

" _Should_ be?" I asked, confused.

Charlie shrugged as he popped the boot, "She works at the Newton's store. Her shifts have been all over the place lately."

I had no idea who the Newtons were but I nodded like I understood. The sun had set during the drive to Charlie's house, and my stomach rumbled as I helped lug my bags to the front door. I was a light packer, out of airport-easiness rather than choice, so I only had a suitcase, duffel, and backpack to bring inside.

Charlie must have heard my stomach because he said, "I was thinking of ordering pizza."

My mouth watered at the very idea. "Sounds great."

"Toppings?"

"Meatlovers with mushrooms," I grinned when Charlie grimaced. Me and Bella were the only people in our family who ate mushrooms. Renée claimed to be allergic and Charlie was not the biggest vegetable fan. In any way or form. There had only ever been vegetables on Charlie's dinner table under strict instructions from Renée; and it had been Bella's job to make sure he enforced it.

For as long as I had know, existed really, Charlie had lived in the same blue, wood-sliding house. It technically only had two rooms but Charlie had cleared out the study for me to have. It was disconcerting walking up the stairs and not heading towards Bella's room. We had shared it during our summers here; but we were too old for that now.

Charlie had bought some cheap pine furniture in Port Angeles before I had come, so I had a dresser, an oddly high bed, and a desk. Renée had wanted me to have a computer like Bella had, but there hadn't been enough money because of the plane tickets. I would have to share with Bella until I could get a job, or one could turn up second-hand. If I was desperate to check my e-mails I would have to make the three-block trek to the musty Forks library.

Overall the study wasn't too bad a bedroom; although significantly smaller than Bella's. It's smallness would make it easier for me to keep it clean and organised, I supposed. I was a notorious clutter monster and more often than not had a floordrobe rather than a wardrobe.

Soft bullets of rain started to hit the window pane as I was putting away my clothes. It hadn't rained in Jacksonville for several weeks. I had missed the cathartic sound of it and breathed in deeply. Although it made me realise how cold i was, so I clicked the ancient little space heater on. One sucky point to Charlie's house; no central heating and no climate control.

Most of my winter clothes I had bought with me, and they barely filled half the dresser. It had seemed pretty ridiculous to bring my summer Florida clothes to Washington. Renee and Phil had given me some money to buy warmer things, but I would have to go Port Angeles or Seattle for that. Forks probably only had a Sears, which was something so horrifying I didn't want to even contemplate.

The rest of my things would remain in Jacksonville, but a couple of boxes were to be delivered in a month or so. Books, knick-knacks, bed sheets; that sort of thing. Anything to make my room less bare, like a motel room.

"Emily, Bella! Pizza's here!" 

* * *

I went to the bathroom quickly before coming downstairs, welcomed by the sound of ESPN and a can of beer being popped open. My stomach growled loudly as the hot meaty smell of pizza hit my nose. God, I hadn't eaten in ages. The food on the airplane had been revolting, so I had picked at it without truly eating any of it. I think I'd only had a Snapple on the flight over.

Charlie was in the boxy living room. I tried not to cringe at all the school photos on the mantle piece, as well as the awkward holiday photos of me and Bella in matching Christmas sweaters. Renée was not so cruel as to torture us with pictures of bad photo days past. But It reeked of Charlie's loneliness, how many hours had he spent in here after work, with nothing but his near-estranged children's' school photos to keep him company? It made me feel deeply guilty.

I was snapped out of my reverie by my stomach growling again. Three pizza boxes sat on the coffee table, next to a six pack of beer and Diet Dr Pepper. My mouth watered.

"You like Dr Pepper, right?" Charlie asked nervously when he caught me eyeing it. It didn't take a genius to figure out he'd gotten the diet variety because both Bella and I were teenage girls and 'cared' about those things. It was sweet, really. I wondered what other things I would find around the house Charlie had done to make it more teenage girl friendly.

I nodded enthusiastically, "Yep. Which box is mine?"

I settled on the carpeted floor so the coffee table could double as a dining table. Charlie had had the sense to grab a wad of paper napkins from the kitchen so there wasn't grease everywhere. We watched baseball for awhile, and Charlie called Bella down again as I cracked open a Dr Pepper and started on my first slice. The barbeque sauce was sweet and tangy, the mushrooms kicking the flavour off. It was an orgasmic experience eating it, my stomach growling relentlessly even as I began my second slice.

"It good?" Charlie asked me, and I nodded again like a bobble head, reaching up with one hand to give a thumbs up. It felt like summers at Charlie's again; we always got pizza on the first night. Bella and I also used to stay up wayyy too late and woke up far too early the next morning, like the worst kind of hyperactive squirrels imaginable.

The Dodgers had just hit a homerun when Bella made her way downstairs.

* * *

There had only ever been two times in my life I'd been scared Bella was going to die. Once when I was thirteen and Charlie had called to say she'd almost been run over by a speeding van, and later that year when Bella had fallen down several flight of stairs and out a hotel window. I had watched her through the observation window of Bella's hospital room for hours, counting the breathes and the spikes of the heart monitor her battered body made. I had thought that would be the end of Bella's near-death experiences.

But sitting in the living room, watching Bella emotionlessly nibbling at a slice of vegetarian pizza, I realised it was another one of those times.

Renée had warned me Bella was not in a good way. I had overheard her and Phil's late night conversations about severe depression and Bella's catatonia. Renée had flown over to bring her home at one point, though Bella had apparently refused… rather violently.

The last time I had seen Bella was waving her off at Phoenix International Airport on the way back to Forks, her creepy JCREW model boyfriend by her side. She had been reasonably happy despite the broken leg, and had been smiling in the Prom photo she'd sent to Renée a couple of weeks later.

Bella… this Bella. Was a corpse. A zombie. A paper doll.

I realised how much I hated Edward Cullen in that moment. It birthed a fierce fury in my belly, the beast inside me itchy and angry and wanting to lash out. I wanted to taste blood.

I shoved a piece of pizza in my mouth, biting hard and grabbing at my moonstone bracelet with my free hand.

Bella hadn't said anything else besides her limp greeting. It felt she wasn't even aware I was there and saw right through me like I was a transparent pane of glass. Another tchotchke in Charlie's living room.

She seemed to pick at her food more than eat it. Two slices of her pizza were disassembled into neat piles of olives, slices of mushroom, cherry tomato halves, bell pepper crescents. Her usually shiny chocolate brown hair was tied in a limp ponytail, dull and dry. Like Charlie, there were deep grooves beneath her eyes like she hadn't slept a full night in weeks. Her clothes were far too clean, and they were too loose on her like she'd lose several pounds.

Bella wore the moonstone ring I had sent her, though. I thought about asking if she liked it, but I couldn't find the words.

Charlie acted too casual about the whole thing; watching the TV and sipping his beer, making loud exaggerated noises each time something happened. I tried to pay attention to the television too, but my eyes kept going back to Bella. _Zombie_ Bella.

During the course of the game I ate my way through over half a pizza, my stomach still growling when I stopped. It would be a futile game to try and satisfy the deep aching hunger there. Charlie drank two beers, although they probably had the alcohol content of my left toe. Bella ate a slice and a half of pizza, and picked apart the rest of it, rendering it unsuitable for left-overs. She said good-night dull-ly, her brown eyes glassy, and mumbled something about homework before disappearing up the stairs again. Her feet didn't seem to make any noise against the creaky wooden steps.

I awkwardly waited around in the living room before I offered to pack up the boxes and put them in the fridge. Charlie grunted noncommittally. The kitchen was the same, but it stunk of bleach and everything was…. too sterile. So unlike Charlie; Bella must have done it. Everything was still the same though. I half-expected the pamphlets and coupons stuck to the fridge with magnets to be dated 2001.

I gave Charlie a hug before heading upstairs. I took the stairs one at a time and paused on the landing. Bella had her light on, it shined out from beneath her door but it was eerily silent. The only thing I could hear was Charlie changing the TV channel downstairs. When we had lived together in Phoenix, she used to play music at night-time.

I stared at her door. Her shut, dark, empty, cold door. It was frightening what could change so drastically over the summer. My diligent, responsible, prickly porcupine of a sister had become someone — no, _something_ else.

Like I had.


	2. Chapter 2

Charlie woke me the next morning at six, tapping on my door timidly like a good knock would startle me awake like a deer.

I stumbled out in my underwear and thermal vest, rubbing at my eyes, and staggering to the bathroom like a drunk. My hair was a nappy mess, and there were bags beneath my eyes. I had struggled to get to sleep in the deathly quiet of Forks. In Jacksonville, I had been lulled to sleep by the distant highway and the sounds of Renée's late night TV. But Forks was silent like a graveyard, so even the smallest of sounds startled you awake like an axe-murderer was coming to get you. All of that was made worse by Bella's screaming nightmares.

The howl had shocked me so much I'd jolted out of bed and tripped on the wooden floors in my socks, slamming onto the floor in my half-asleep delirium. The thing inside me had tried to escape the confines of my moonstone bracelets, my skin had felt prickly and tight like I'd been vacuum-sealed into my own flesh.

Charlie had heard Bella screaming, which wasn't surprising considering it could've stripped paint, and had heard the loud thumping from my bedroom. He'd told me to go back to bed when I'd darted into the hall, saying he would handle it before disappearing to Bella's bedroom. I knew better than to invade my introverted sister's privacy. My night had totally blowed… and so had hers.

Another sucky point to Charlie's house was the communal bathroom. In Phoenix, Bella and I had shared the family bathroom, and I'd had my own bathroom in Jacksonville. It smelt of Comet bleach, like the kitchen, and everything was neatly organised. In the narrow shower stall, all the shampoo bottles had been turned label-front like a _Bed, Bath & Beyond_. It was freakin' disturbing.

Charlie had a pretty good water tank, my shower remained at a constant blistering heat the entire time I was in there. I hadn't thought to bring my own toiletries beyond a toothbrush, makeup, and deodorant. So I washed my hair with Bella's strawberry shampoo and conditioner, and scrubbed myself down with Charlie's Old Spice soap. Conflicting perfumes, maybe, but I loved the familiar scents.

It was overcast and still dark outside, so I had to turned on the light in my room to get dressed. Before I had left Florida, I had agonised over what to wear to my new school. I had only just started my Freshman year of high school in Jacksonville before I had been told of Renée's plan, so I had never really prepared for high school fashion-wise. Forks would be my first proper proper high school. Although, to be honest, I still felt like I belonged in middle school.

Because it was probably going to rain later that day, I decided jeans, a t-shirt, and my pastel sweater was a good idea, paired with my waterproof boots. It sort of went okay with my grey raincoat, and I wore a couple more pieces of moonstone jewellery. It felt like my beast was in check; but it was better to be safe than sorry. Mostly my worry was with the bags beneath my eyes that I tried to hastily cover up with some concealer.

The first thing I smelt when I walked out of my room was hot coffee and peanut butter. My stomach growled again, aching, as I made my way to the kitchen.

"Morning," Charlie greeted, his voice hoarse from sleep, and he took a drink from his coffee mug. A percolator sat on the stove, and I could smell fresh coffee from across the room. Coffee. Nectar of the gods, and lifeblood of a grouchy Swan in the morning.

To my dismay, I learnt that Bella was in charge of grocery shopping. Which meant the breakfast cereals in the house consisted of _Cheerios_ and some nasty looking _All Bran_ muesli. I shuddered. I generally had _pop tarts_ or _Lucky Charms_ in the morning, as I was a sugar-hungry heathen that didn't give a crap about diabetes. Being faced with unfrosted _Cheerios_ was tantamount to starvation. That would have to be rectified; _Cheerios_ werenot a suitable breakfast option.

Charlie raised an eyebrow when I put my cup of coffee and bowl of cereal on the table, but didn't comment. I had only started drinking coffee earlier that year anyway, so it was a new-ish development. To be frank, though, it did have more creamer and sugar in it than actual coffee.

The old pipes shuddered and creaked when the shower turn on upstairs, meaning Bella was awake. Charlie didn't look up from the newspaper on his lap. I forgot sometimes that normal people couldn't hear what I often could.

"Anything interesting?" I ask conversationally, popping a spoon of Cheerios into my mouth.

Charlie shook his head, "Nope, just some bear sightings near the Sol Duc."

That surprised me. Forks had never really had a bear problem; exactly. Coyotes often snuck into town to tear through people's' garbage cans with the raccoons. I remember one of my last summers here had involved chasing some coyotes out of old Mrs Geller's backyard so they didn't eat her equally geriatric cat.

We had seen bears in Washington about once, when Charlie and Billy Black had taken me, Bella, and Billy's kids to the Olympic National Park. That day had involved one of Billy's daughters pushing another into a lake and Bella falling into a patch of stinging nettles.

But bears near the Sol Duc river? That was pretty close, especially considering the winter had been very mild this year. Guess Forks had two animal control problems now. I shrugged and continued eating my cereal.

Bella did not look any better than she had last night. Even freshly showered and in clean clothes she still looked sort of… unkept. Like me, she was dressed in jeans and a sweater, but hers hung loosely and didn't flatter her sallow complexion. I had never seen her like this before.

Bella had never been girly, but even in her jeans and t-shirts, she'd always been presentable. With her unblow-dried hair and gruesome-looking black rings beneath her sunken eyes, however she was doing a great imitation of a drowned rat.

"Morning!" I chirped, hoping to get Bella's usual reply that I was far too annoying in the morning. But she just smiled limply and gave a mumbled greeting. I watched my sister-who-was-not-my-sister make a bowl of Cheerios, a frown tugging at my lips.

Charlie gave me a reassuring, if sad, smile across the table like a weathered soldier. I sighed and turned back to my own cereal, patting down the floating cheerios with the bowl of my spoon. I pretended I was pushing boats beneath the sea to drown.

Bella took the remaining seat next to me, but didn't say anything. She ate her cereal exactly like she used too; drowning in milk. It was a relief to see Bella eat something. The vertebrae of her spine could be seen through her t-shirt.

"Big day, huh," Charlie broke the silence like the hell-raiser he was. He put on hand on his thigh and put his elbow on the table like a constable in a TV show. "You ready, Emily?"

I pulled a face and breathed dramatically, "I think so."

I wasn't ready. I _lied_.

"Bella's going to drive you to school," Charlie said unnecessarily. I knew my sister was going to drive me to school, Bella had said so in an e-mail to Renée when this whole disaster had been arranged.

Bella didn't look up from her cereal but she nodded, one hand raised to her lips resolutely. She didn't eat any more breakfast.

* * *

The car ride to my new school was awkward. Bella didn't turn the radio on and refused to let me when I asked. She said she didn't like music playing when she drove. Music was distracting. I thought that would be the end of our conversation, and the beast inside me jittered along with my own anxiety.

"How's Renée?" Bella asked suddenly, leaning forward in the driver's seat to reach the monstrously large steering wheel. The truck was huge, at least to five-foot-nothing me, and Bella had to push her seat all the way forward for her feet to touch the pedals. I half expected to see cushion beneath Bella's butt to boost her up higher.

I was a little surprised but I answered quickly, "Good. She's taken up candle-making again, although this time she's going 'vegan' or whatever."

My sister crinkled her nose but there was a hint of a smile on her lips. "Wonder how long that's going to last."

"Well," I pondered sarcastically, tilting my head and putting a finger on my lips. "We went to the vegan bistro on Thursday last week… so, four days, I reckon."

We both chuckled lightly, but the conversation dropped after that. Our mother's fickle flightiness wasn't exactly a good topic for a lasting conversation. Much like her decision making. But the drive to Forks High School wasn't very long; like most things it was just off the main highway.

I remember Bella talking about it in an e-mail when she first moved here. There weren't any fences around the school buildings at all, and as Bella pulled into the student parking lot I noticed there weren't security guards either. Or metal-detectors, or even a ticket system for parking.

Small towns were pre-9/11 pipe-dreams. There weren't many new cars in the lot either, most of them battered eighties and nineties models with bumpers covered in band and football stickers. It was early, so kids were hanging out between their cars and talking. It looked like a couple of them had cafeteria sacks; meaning the cafeteria sold breakfast. What in the _actual_ fuck. The PTA here must have held aggressive bake sale campaigns to fund that kinda crap.

Nobody looked at us when we hopped out of the truck, and Bella offered to walk me towards the front office so I could sign in and collect my timetable. FHS had virtually no-one in the locker-covered corridors. Most of the fittings, like the florescent lighting and barren trophy cupboards, looked like they were installed in the late seventies.

Along the way, Bella vaguely gestured to classrooms with an arm like a dead fish. She did at least make a point to point out the large black numbers on the corridor walls. When we reached the front office Bella waited outside for me to go in, already pulling a book out to read. A typical reaction, even for zombie-Bella.

The lady at the front desk had frizzy orange hair in a bun on the top of her head, with a pair of gold braid earrings straight from the eighties. She was sort of dumpy, with glasses that fell down the high, sharp steep of her narrow nose. I'd never had a problem with introducing myself, or making the first move, so I strolled up to the desk and smiled.

"My name is Emily Swan, I'm a new student here."

The lady gave me a lopsided smile and leafed through some papers on her desk before she slid them across to me. "You're Bella's sister aren't you? How is she going?"

In a town this small it shouldn't have surprised me that people had noticed her… zombish-ness. And noticed to a point the desk ladies at her high school gossiped about it. I wondered what they thought of her.

"Fine." I said curtly, holding back the bite on my tongue. Probably not a good idea to snap at a desk lady on the first day at a new school. Incidents like that couldn't be swallowed up in a sea of four-thousand students.

* * *

Bella showed me to my first class, and we hovered awkwardly outside its door before we said goodbye. She said we could meet in the cafeteria at lunch time before she walked off. Although it looked like she wandered off, her pace like that of a dreamy Alzheimer's patient.

My first class was introductory algebra, taught by Mr. Varner, a middle-aged man with a beer belly. He shook my hand and gave me a battered copy of the textbook with a blistered laminated cover. Seats weren't assigned, and the class was mostly empty, so I took a pew in the middle of the room by the window. It was mildly disturbing to me how small the classrooms were.

Only a couple of kids seemed to notice me when they started to walk in, but I kept my head down by riffling through the textbook and arranging my things on the desk. After the bell rang, Mr. Varner didn't go feel the need to mercilessly embarrass me by making me introduce myself.

Surprisingly, I was a little ahead in algebra than the class and breezed through the exercises we were set. During class time, I doodled in the back pages of my notebook, smiling at a girl who kept turned back to stare at me. Her dusty blonde hair was tied up in a bouncing ponytail that swished each time she turned her head.

Logically, I knew she was probably wondering who the fuck I was. But her big hazel eyes made it feel like she was wondering if I was some kind of imposter student. When she caught my gaze and I smiled, she blushed terribly and snapped around to stare at the board.

After the class let out, she came up to me as I was packing my bag.

"Hi," I greeted casually, wedging my notebook in my bag. "I'm Emily."

She grinned awkwardly and tugged at the corner of her sunshine yellow shirt. "I'm Bridgette. Are you new? I don't think I've seen you before."

"I'm Chief Swan's other daughter." I clarified and her face seemed to bloom with understanding. "I just got here from Florida."

"Ohhh, cool. I've never been to Florida - hey, what class do you have next?"

I pulled my timetable I'd folded into quarters out of my pocket, "Umm… classic literature."

"Sweet! Me too, it's with Mr. Mason. He goes pretty easy on freshman so it's really easy."

The first thing I learnt about Bridgette was that she was that she didn't mind talking about herself. She also seemed to know everyone in freshman year. She had an older brother who was a senior and a younger sister who was in the middle school, which sat conveniently across the football fields.

Bridgette stopped by groups of other girls along the way to literature class to chat with friends, and to introduce me. Everyone smiled and seemed quite nice, although I knew it was because of my newbie novelty. The normal cliques would return to normal within a month or so of me being around.

We were reading _Oliver Twist_ in literature, which Mr. Mason seemed pretty bored with. He took my pink slip when I came in, and said he looked forward to having me in his class because my sister was a good student. He let me sit next to Bridgette without any hassle.

 _Oliver Twist_ was boring to me. We'd been studying Charles Dickens's _The Magic Fishbone_ in Florida, so I didn't even own a copy of _Oliver Twist_. Mr. Mason said there were some copies in the library but I knew I'd either have to buy one, or see if Bella had one I could borrow.

Like my sister, I loved to read. But unlike Bella, I liked modern young adult and fantasy novels. Bella liked classics; Jane Austen and Charlotte Brönte. There had been a couple of times we'd convinced each other to read another's books, and I hadn't minded _Pride & Prejudice_ and Bella had enjoyed _Outlander_. But as a whole we largely stuck to our own genres. In a way, I suppose it made sense for Bella to fall in love with such an arrogant asshat. Just thinking about him gave me the creeps.

Bridgette was in most of my classes except for third period, where she had Spanish and I had French, but as our classes were side-by-side we walked together. We chatted about inane stuff like Lindsay Lohan in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen and our favourite TV shows. We had started talking about our favourite male celebrities when Bridgette encountered another cluster of her friends outside of our classrooms.

"Louise, Emma!" Bridgette greeted, and they all hugged each other like a puppy-pile. They looked pretty much like typical girls I'd known in Florida. Both of them were brunettes, although one was quite skinny and the other less so. "This is Emily, she's Chief Swan's daughter!"

We shared hellos and I managed to put some vague names to faces. Louise was the skinnier one, with her light brown hair in a french braid and a small sheen of lip gloss on her thin lips. Emma had hair down to her waist she didn't bother to tie back, and wore a tartan-pattern dress over black tights. It was kind of awkward.

I felt like I was being foisted off on Bridgette's friends but I tried not to be bothered about it. Connections were connections, right? And I wanted to have friends, even casual awkward ones with bad fashion sense.

I was behind in French, which was frustrating. I hadn't taken Spanish because I thought French was more whimsical… and I regretted that decision. But I couldn't change electives this time of year so I was stuck. Serves me right, I supposed.

Louise and Emma didn't hang around after-class. So I awkwardly hovered around the classroom before I decided it was a good idea to follow everyone else. I figured it was the least obtrusive way of finding my way to the cafeteria.

It was confronting to see how tiny the cafeteria was. At Jacksonville, the cafeteria was big enough for twelve hundred people to eat sitting down at once. Forks High School sat about one-hundred and fifty, and the cafeteria serving benches were only a couple of metres long. There were only three vending machines along the wall, and only one of which had junk food inside. Jesus _fucking_ christ. Where was I supposed to get a Snickers bar from?

Charlie had given me a ten dollar note as lunch money before he left for work. I looked around the cafeteria, trying to see Bella's mop of brown hair. After a couple of minutes of searching, my stomach growled and I started to give up. Mr. Varner must've let my class out early or something, so I decided to join the lunch line whilst I waited.

I grabbed a can of Grape _Fanta_ from a vending machine, and when I noticed the hot food for the day was gross looking spaghetti or meatballs, decided the lunch bar was a better option. Jacksonville had had a make-your-own-lunch bar for only a couple of weeks before it was removed, as people kept doing stuff to the food. Forks's seemed pretty untampered, and reminded me vaguely of a _Subway_. I made myself a tomato and cheese sandwich, and picked a large chocolate chip cookie from the dessert basket.

As I was leaving the bar, I struck me that I had nowhere to sit. I couldn't see Bridgette anywhere, and Bella was still MIA. I made a snap decision to head towards an empty table by an unfamiliar set of doors when I heard someone say something behind me.

"Hi, ar-are you Bella's sister?" It was a male voice, on the cusp of being the truly deep baritone of a fully grown man's. I looked behind me, an automatic smile on my face. Bella never hid her displeasure, but I did on a regular basis. 'Fake it until you make it' had become a personal motto of mine.

The speaker was a senior in a navy blue, yellow, and white Letterman jacket. He had his thick blonde hair gelled up in spikes, and although his blue eyes were a little too close together he wasn't unattractive in the least.

"Yeah," I answered with a nod of my head. And the strange boy smiled. "My name's Emily."

"Oh," He chuckled, "Sorry, my name's Mike Newton."

"Like Newton's Outfitters?"

"The one and only." He boasted fake-smugly, and smiled cheekily like a used car salesman.

I grinned, "Sweet. So, lemme guess… football team?"

Mike puffed up like a peacock, jutting his chest out to display the Spartans' logo on the front of his jacket, and then jumped into an Atlas pose when I started giggling.

"You a sophomore, or a junior?"

"Freshman," I nodded somberly when he mock-gasped.

I was about to ask Mike if he'd seen my sister when a semi-familiar voice cut through the bubble of the cafeteria, "Emily, over here!"

It was Bridgette, waving frantically from an almost full table. She looked at Mike like he was a zoo exhibit.

"I,uh, better let you get back to your friends," He chuckled good naturedly, looking like an abashed golden retriever. "But-uh, if you ever need anything, I'm your guy."

"I will, thanks." I gave him a little wave with one hand as I made my way over to Bridgette's table. I loved seniors like Mike. Back in Jacksonville it had been a weird quasi-tradition for some seniors to 'adopt' the baby freshman like little ducklings. I guess it must've been universal.

At Bridgette's table, I felt like a circus animal when I went to sit in the chair she had saved for me.

"I can't believe Mike Newton was talking to you!" She squealed excitedly like we were already best friends. The other girls at the group, who thankfully did not include the ones who'd ditched me before, all looked at Bridgette with mild interest. Of course, Bridgette appeared to be the ring leader.

"Only because he's friends with my sister," I brushed off with a shrug, cracking open my grape soda.

Bridgette gaped at me like a fish even so. "Yeah, sure. Nobody just does that even if they know your sister."

I pretended to be skeptical and consider her words seriously. But I knew her type; making a big deal out of everything to get attention from the group. Which wasn't a bad thing, I just hoped she would drop it and not carry on the whole semester. Mike seemed nice, and a-dork-able, but definitely not someone who was interested in a baby freshman.

Through lunch, I joined in vague conversations with the other girls and chomped through my sandwich. I ended up splitting the cookie with the girl next to me named Layla, who had frizzy blonde hair and braces. It turned out we both liked _Outlander_ , and had started giggling about Jamie Fraser when the bell rang. Bella was still nowhere to be seen.

* * *

The last class on my first day was chemistry, which wasn't terrible. Layla, the girl from lunch, sat next to me and let me use her textbook. Renée would have to transfer some money to my bank account for all the books I needed. We talked a little bit during class, but I was worried about my sister. I hadn't seen her the entire lunch period or in any of the corridors. In a school this small it should have been easy to spot her, even at a distance.

When class let out, I walked to the front office to hand in my pink slips. The desk lady smiled and asked about my day, so I lied that it had been awesome as I left. Finding my way back to the parking lot was a little difficult. All the corridors looked the same in the dying Washington light.

Unlike my ghost of a sister, her truck was easy to spot in the afternoon gloom. The setting sun reflected off the puddles colouring them a burning orange, and bathed Forks in a rainy tangerine fire. Pine trees flooded the horizon like a green sea, the peaks of mountains poking out in the distance. I took it all in with a deep breath, like I could suck the atmosphere into my lungs.

When I came back to earth, and FHS's parking lot, I saw Bella in the cab of her truck, a book in her hands. Apart of me wanted to march up to the cab and knock on the window, demanding to know where she'd been at lunch. But I wasn't a complete ass and Bella deserved better.

Bella looked up from her book when I hopped into the cab, giving me a very weak smile. Little droplets of rain dotted her chocolate brown hair, the setting sun catching the red strands in it.

"Hey," Even her voice was weak. "Sorry I - uh, didn't see you at lunch. I had ah.. a headache so I had lunch in the truck."

It didn't surprise me. Not really. Bella had never liked large groups of people, and I suppose high school must have been hellish for her… especially now. It hadn't escaped my attention that people gossiped about how she was.

I nodded and tried to keep my voice light, "It's alright. I met your friend Mike in the cafeteria; he seems nice."

Bella snorted a little, shoving her book into her bag and putting her keys in the ignition. "I've got to stop by the _Thriftway_ to get some things for dinner, that okay?"

My sister had always been good with dodging topics of conversations; and I wondered why Mike was a subject left alone. But then I remembered what Charlie had said during a phone call, about Bella not seeing her friends. Maybe friends were like music to her now. Distracting.

* * *

 **A/N:** **Sorry for the later-than-expected update! It was several thousand more words than I was expecting, and I got slammed with college assessments.**

 **I legit drove through Forks in Google Maps to make sure every thing fit perfectly, and Forks still has the Thriftway Stephanie Meyer described lmfao. I've also never eaten pretty much 97% of all American foods described, so if I describe the flavour wrong please tell me. Can I also just add it seems so bizarre to me that some American schools have metal detectors and security guards ¯\\_(ツ** **)_/¯.**

 **Thank you for your review, Anon!** **I'm sorry your toilet break was ruined so tragically lmfao.**


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